>News: Ghana (Finally) Halts Chinese Milk Imports

What took them so long? Reports of melamine poisoning emerged from China onto the wires a whole week ago. Considering how much trade goes on between Ghana and China, this should have been pretty immediate.

Although no companies are officially registered to import Chinese milk, this is Ghana and we are a ‘creative’ people: TV news reports last night showed fresh-looking footage of Chinese dairy goods on Ghanaian shelves. Our citizens should have been warned not to buy any such products days ago.

Then again, news-following Ghanaians may have already made up their own minds. The Ghanaian grapevine is a very fruitful one and – as the saying goes – ‘filla (gossip) no get legs’. In my opinion, it has wings. I guess it has to if the government’s information machinery is this slow.

It would be interesting to find out what process went between the first news reports and yesterday’s announcement.

I wonder:

When the Standards Board even heard anything.

How long it took for them to act internally.

What kind of bureaucracy they had to go through before the announcement was authorized.

Most importantly though, I hope no Ghanaian children died waiting for the authorities to get their acts together.